There are known and commercially available to the practicing chiropractor and other health professionals numerous types of tables to assist the health professional in conducting examinations, adjustments and treatments beneficial to the patient. When used for chiropractic adjustments, these tables commonly are designed so that the patient support is separated into separate sections for the head, chest, lumbar, pelvic and foot sections. Commonly, each of these sections is independently supported and some are moveable so that the health professional can conduct the desired adjustment or treatment. Some of the sections have a moveable mechanism that allows that section to be displaced a predetermined distance to facilitate the adjustment. In other tables of this type, the movement of the sections is controlled manually, pneumatically or hydraulically, and various systems have been devised to assist the health care professional in applying the correct amount of force so as to provide the desired therapeutic benefit for the patient. One example of such a table is disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,111.
In tables that do not employ hydraulics or pneumatics to control movement of the individual sections, the sections typically are supported on a vertical bar or tube mounted in guides with a spring loaded ball and detent arrangement. With the prior art drop mechanisms, the amount of force necessary to cause the drop depends upon where the health professional pushes on the section. With the prior art arrangement, it is difficult for the health professional to determine, except by experience and feel, the correct amount of force that should be applied to the patient since it will depend upon where on the patient support section the force is applied.
Moreover, in all of the known prior art tables of this type, each of the support sections, the chest, lumbar, and pelvic, are totally independent of each other and require three separate drop mechanisms. This not only adds to the overall cost of the table, but since each drop mechanism can be adjusted as to the amount of force required to create the drop, the health professional must adjust each independently. There is therefore room for improvement in the drop mechanism itself as well as the way in which the various sections are mounted on the table. It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved drop mechanism for tables of this type and to provide a unique and improved arrangement whereby the number of drop mechanisms can be reduced while still providing the capability of allowing the health professional to conduct the necessary adjustments more easily and consistently.